TF2 Soldier hat (Roman Legion)

[Beck]

Hi all, hope this is the right section for me to post this!

I've decided to create a hat for TF2. It's a Roman Legion helmet much like these:



I've got it modelled, unwrapped, rigged and imported already, just working on the texture at the moment. Here is what I have so far:


Any feedback would be nice, always willing to go back and make some changes to make it look better

Anyway, I was wondering if you guys could help me out a little too...

I've got the hat all working in game and textured. Just having a little trouble with the jigglebones and I was wondering if anyone has any idea how to help me.

I'll upload a picture to show you what I mean.


Anyway, the arrows in [COLOR="Red"]RED[/COLOR] are movement I don't want the cheek guards to make. Such as spinning or swinging forwards and backwards (back of his head to front of his head). The arrow in WHITE is what I want the cheek guards to do. I would like to have them swing slightly from side to side (towards his face and away from his face)

You can see what I mean a bit better in the first two reference pictures I posted. You can see the cheek guards are attached using hinges. Obviously they shouldn't twist or move on any other axis than the one they're orientated in.

I've tried loads of combinations with the "is_rigid" jigglebone, but none of them allow me to make it move in JUST that axis.

My current .qc is here

Code: Select all

$cd "C:\Users\Beck\Desktop\TF2 Stuff\legion_hat"
$modelname "player\items\all_class\all_domination_2009.mdl"
$model "Body" "legion_hat.smd"
$cdmaterials "\models\player\items\all_class\"
$hboxset "default"
$hbox 0 "bip_head" -4.712  -9.009  -5.734  4.712  0.007  4.244
// Model uses material "\models\player\items\all_class\legion_hat_red.vmt"
$surfaceprop "metal"
$illumposition 0.349 0.000 80.672
$sequence idle "idle" fps 30.00
$jigglebone "helmet_jiggle" {
   is_rigid {
      tip_mass 100
      length 50
      angle_constraint 10
   }
}
$jigglebone "cheek_l_jiggle" {
   is_rigid {
      tip_mass 5
      length 1
      angle_constraint 25
      pitch_constraint 0 0
      yaw_constraint 0 0
   }
}
$jigglebone "cheek_r_jiggle" {
   is_rigid {
      tip_mass 25
      length 10
      angle_constraint 5
      pitch_constraint 30 30
   }
}

cheek_l_jiggle and cheek_r_jiggle are the two bones I want to only move on a specific axis. helmet jiggle is just to make the entire helmet wiggle on his head slightly.

I know the two cheek parameters are different, I was just playing about with the settings. The pitch or yaw constraints don't do what I want, so I set them to "0 0".

Would remaking the bones in 3ds max help fix this? Is this even possible to do? If not I'll have to go back and remodel them so they're attached by a piece of leather or something so they can swing about freely.

Thanks for any help or feedback! Really appreciate it! Hope you like it

[Chrille]

I don't know anything about how jigglebones work, but I want to say that that there is a mighty fine looking hat

[Beck]

Thank you. I plan on contributing it once its done. I hope Valve like it too!

I'm going to try making the bones in a different orientation tomorrow. See if that will give any different results with the pitch and yaw constraints. Hope so!

Texturing for TF2 is harder than it looks too! Getting the hang of it though

[Plague]

From what I'm reading off of the VDC The pitch constraint should be what you want.
Something small so it acts sorta like its on a hinge rather then a ball socket. (something like 10 i'm thinking)

Have you tried each one at a time? If not just make sure the pitch contraint is not working on its own.

Also I agree, its a pretty awesome hat

[Beck]

I did try each of them by themselves. If I remember correctly GUIstudioMDL gave me an error with pitch_constraint, but I did have the other ones present at the time too. I'll try each of them in the .qc alone this time around. I'll let you know how it goes

Again, thank you I'm just surprised it hasn't been made already! I think it suits the Soldier pretty well!

[Beck]

Ok, just tried a few things and here's what I found:

pitch_constraint alone gave this effect:

It span around the hinge as if it were a hand on a clock.

yaw_constraint gave similar results:

yaw made it spin on the hinge again, this time like a revolving door. If it passed half way around thought it would flip and face up, whilst still rotating.

As far as I know there aren't any other constraint parameters for me to try. Angle constraint makes them not move at all.

I tried recreating the bones in different viewports in 3DS Max to see if it would give different results, but sadly they did the same as before.

Does anybody else have any other ideas? I'd prefer not to have them static, and I don't think it'd look right if I took the hinge off and used a piece of leather or something to attach them to the helmet, as they'd spin and such. They're meant to protect the face, not spin around uncontrollably!

Apart from that does anybody have any comments or crits on the actual helmet? I'm going to be working on the texture more tomorrow.

Thanks guys

[Groxkiller585]

I'm gonna go on a guess here, but since in Hammer you don't have two values, you have 3 values: Pitch, Yaw, and ROLL. Maybe there's a Roll_constraint?

[Beck]

Nope, didn't work

ERROR: $jigglebone: invalid syntax 'roll_constraint'

[Groxkiller585]

Code: Select all

yaw_stiffness
How stiff the spring is in the local yaw rotational axis.
yaw_damping
Damping along the local yaw rotational axis.
pitch_stiffness
How stiff the spring is in the local pitch rotational axis.
pitch_damping
Damping along the local pitch rotational axis.
along_stiffness
How stiff the spring is along the axis of the spring. This is only used if "allow_length_flex" is specified for this bone.
along_damping
Damping along the axis of the spring. This is only used if "allow_length_flex" is specified for this bone
allow_length_flex
Normally, jiggle bones keep their length rigid. Specifying this allows that length to flex as well.
length
How far the "tip" mass is from the base in inches. Short lengths result in dramatic jiggling. Longer lengths result in more subtle motions.
tip_mass
How much the tip is affected by gravity. Zero disables gravity effects, whereas 1000 would be a heavy mass.
 


Here's a few extra parameters from the VDC, maybe using this plus a ballsocket-like constraint could get the effect you want?

[Beck]

I've tried all of those and none of them have done what I want them to

How do I make a ball socket type jigglebone? I though it was just "is_rigid", "is_flexible" or springy (forgot it's name )

It's a shame there's not much online about jigglebones. Maybe I'll write a tutorial for it once I'm done with this. All there is online really is a youtube video and what's on VDC.

Thanks for the help, appreciate it

[Plague]

Not sure about how it works in modeling, but could two side by side jiggly bones work?
Like two bones to represent the hinge connection.

I'm liking the relation it has to the original Soldier helmet also.

[Beck]

I don't think it would work like that. With one bone I can just assign all the verticies I want to move and the whole thing will move as one, with two bones there might be differences in the forces each bone might come under, so some of the guard will move one way whilst the other bone will move it another way. Since it's made of metal it wouldn't look right.

Thanks for the feedback

[marnamai]

I need that hat and a nametag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8_jgiNqUc

[Beck]

Ok little update for you all, done some more texturing and would like some feedback













What do you guys think so far? I know it still needs a bit of work, but I want to know what you guys love/hate about it.

Is the metal (grey) colour ok? How about the gold? The plume are what I had most of my trouble with. How does it looks? (The top and front/back still need detailing) The blue team will have a blue plume of course

I'd love some feedback. Be as harsh as you will, any feedback is helpful!

Thanks guys.

Edit: I know it's clipping slightly through his head, I'll fix that once the texture is done.

[Groxkiller585]

the seond-to-last two images have a bit of his head sticking out.